A US patent filing may shed light on Nokia's plans to build a new tablet. The company was ahead of the curve with its N800 and N8100 Internet Tablets back in the day, and may be seeking to get back in the game.

The patent filing includes diagrams of a tablet device that appears to be to the Nokia N8 what Apple's iPad is to the iPhone. The images show a variety of ports along the top edge of the device, but, being a design patent, there are no details on tech specs, including which operating system it would run.

Is this a glimpse at something Nokia will unveil officially later this year? Sadly, possibly not. The patent was filed in May 2010, according to Boy Genius Report, at a time when the company was still banging the drum with Intel for their jointly developed MeeGo operating system, which was expected to power a range of tablets, as well as smart phones.

With Stephen Elop now in charge of Nokia, and the company's previous smart-phone strategy torn up in favour of a deal with Microsoft to make Windows 7 Phone devices, it's anyone's guess whether the patent filing relates to a product that's still in development.